John Harte is glider CFI and chief instructor at Sanhill Soaring Club in Gregory, Michigan, just a few miles down the road from Hell. (Hell, Michigan, that is.) He's also a tow pilot, aerobatic pilot, airshow performer, and FAST formation lead.

Here's an hour and a half in conversation with John.

Kent and I are sequestered in our respective locations at SARS-CoV-2 sweeps the nation, so we thought we'd record a podcast episode.

An eighth-grade language arts assignment from FOD becomes an Airspeed episode. A father's expectations for his son at 14.

David Allen (on the bully mic) and Dean Greenblatt (BIRD from the show) join Steve to debrief the first-ever airshow over the Detroit River.

First in a series that follows the planning and execution of our very own airshow.

US Soaring Team member Tony Condon talks about the upcoming 13.5 Meter World Championships in Lithuania. 

The remarks by US Rep Sam Graves regarding sequestration and its effects on the airshow industry.

In which I pick up a microphone and purport to entertain an airshow crowd (and confirm my suspicion that it's a lot harder than it looks).

The American Flight museum's AC-57 Spooky gunship.

Greg Smith and his Beech 18.

Behind the scenes at Airspeed.  Kinda.

50 minutes of pure awesome with one of North America's busiest airshow announcers, Rob Reider.

ENS Evan Levesque (pronounced “leh-VECK”) is a primary flight student at NAS Whiting Field near Milton, Florida.  He’s flying the mighty T-6B in the aerobatic phase of training, having recently completed the contact phase and flown his first solo.  He has instrument work and a formation phase yet to go.

More information at www.navy.com.

The second installment of the Airspeed LPA.

A diary of my first aerobatic competition.  Compiled from blog posts I wrote before, during, and after the competition.

Music is Game Day by Jon Schmidt.  www.johnschmidt.com.  www.musicalley.com.

An overview of the Airshows 101 course at the 2011 ICAS convention.

On 21 August 2017, the umbral shadow of the moon will sweep across the continental United States from Oregon to South Carolina.  Here are some thoughts about how (and why) to fly through that shadow.

Here's the promo that I shot for The Hoppers, an L-39 team based in the midwestern US.

Here's a big file that contains the full account of my experiences at CAP NESA MAS 2010.  This file contains all of the audio from the prior three episodes in one tasty jumbo audio burrito.

I hope that this doesn't bother anyone who has already downloaded the three individual installments.  I'm thinking about removing those three episodes from the feed and having just this big one for future download.

Want more information about CAP?  Head to www.gocivilaitpatrol.com.  Want a PDF version of this account with images from the school?  It's at http://traffic.libsyn.com/airspeed/Airspeed_-_Touching_the_True_Source_-_CAP_NESA_MAS_2010_-_v2011-10-10.pdf.

This is the third of a three-episode series covering my experience at Civil Air Patrol’s National Emergency Services Academy Mission Aircrew School (NESA-MAS) in Indiana in the summer of 2010.

This is the second of a three-episode series covering my experience at Civil Air Patrol’s National Emergency Services Academy Mission Aircrew School (NESA-MAS) in Indiana in the summer of 2010.

I intend to make available the entire 30,000-word piece in a single file and PDF document with photos at about the time at which I release the third episode. I might also put the long-form file into the podcast feed on its own.

In the meantime, enjoy this in-depth look at the nation’s premier civilian fixed-wing search-and-rescue flight training school from the perspective of a zero-to-hero CAP Mission Pilot candidate.

In the wake of a difficult weekend (and, indeed, a difficult season) for the airshow community, I asked John Cudahy to sit down for a few minutes to talk about airshow safety.

John has been the president of the International Council of Air Shows, Inc. (“ICAS”) since 1997.  I’ve heard him speak at the annual convention in Las Vegas for the past two years and I’m returning to Las Vegas again this December.

John is one of those people who has always been on my list of people to bring onto the show at some appropriate time.  I had thoughts of bringing him on as a part of the upcoming episode encapsulating my experience attending ICAS’s Airshows 101 class at the last convention.  But the events of the summer conspired to make it more important to bring John onto the show now to talk about the ICAS safety culture.

Part 1 of my 30,000-word epic describing my experiences at CAP's National Energency Services Academy Mission Aircrew School in 2010.

Will Hawkins joins Steve to commiserate about independent filmmaking.

Getting complacent in your flying?  Take a cue from a TV secret agent and try flying an approach with everything completely different and some of it detinitely not TSO'ed.

Here's yet another sneak peek from Acro Camp, Airspeed's upcoming independent documentary feature film.  Get more information at www.acrocamp.com.

That's right!  We're doing it again!  This is the casting call for Acro Camp 2.

More information and a link to the cast application is at www.acrocamp.com.

Application deadline is 11:59 24 June 2011 (0359Z 25 June 2001)!

We talk to Ben Freelove of the Tutima Academy of Aviation Safety about formation flying.  Everything from loose en route formations to formation acro.  Check out www.tutimaacademy.com. 

A video feature focusing on Mike Robinson of the Starfighters shot at the TICO Valiant Air Command airshow this March in Titusville, Florida.

More information about the Starfighters is available at www.starfighters.net.

Here's video from the December 17, 2010 studio session that Don, Barry, and I did as part of the efforts on the soundtrack for the upcoming feature film, Acro Camp.  It's one long hand-held shot with footage from the movie laid on tip from time to time.

More information is available at www.acrocamp.com.

Here's the formation flight from Day 3 of Acro Camp. Two aircraft, five cameras, 12 audio tracks, and a lot of synchronization and editing.  But very worthwhile considering the result.

Stay tuned to Airspeed and check out www.acrocamp.com for news and details about the forthcoming independent documentary feature film.

This is the audio from Will Hawkins' last interview with Don and Barry after the last camper left on Day 4 of Acro Camp.

The second #NotAtSnF show on Sun 'N Fun Radio, recorded Saturday 2 April 2011.

The cast includes Steve Visscher and Grant McHerron of Plane Crazy Down Under; Chris Holub and John Conway, two thirds of the In the Pattern Podcast; Will Hawkins from The Pilot’s Flight PodLog and A Pilot’s Story; and Bill Williams of The Pilotcast.

A sneak peek of what we're working on for the Acro Camp movie.  Check out more at www.acrocamp.com.

Airspeed's epic poem Fingers in the Airport Fence Entwined came out in 2007, but never really go tits own episode.  So, as I'm plowing through the editing for Acro Camp and putting out proposals for the upcoming season's coverage on Airspeed, I thought I'd take the opportunity to put Fingers out there in its very own episode.  Enjoy!

Flight with the USAF 9th Reconnaissance Wing in a Northrop T-38A Talon.

As many of you know, I attended the Civil Air Patrol’s National Emergency Services Academy (“NESA”) this summer at Camp Atterbury in Indiana. I did the Mission Pilot track in the Mission Aircrew School portion of the academy. But there’s a lot more than that to NESA that the aircrew training.

I'm working on an epic NESA episode that distills my own thoughts about the experience, but I wanted to be sure to get the full 30,000-foot view as well. To that end, I invited CAP Lt Col John Desmarais, CAP’s interim national Director of Operations, to talk about NESA.

There’s more information about NESA at http://www.nesa.cap.gov/ and more information about CAP (including a unit locator that can help you find a unit to visit and maybe join) at http://gocivilairpatrol.com/.

Airspeed launches its LPA (Lieutenant Protection Association") series about military aviation customs, history, and insider information!  We begin with Jordan Haines, the commander-in-chief of CoinForce.com, a premier provider of military challenge coins (including, happily enough, the Airspeed challenge coin).

Here's the keynote at the morning session of ICAS 2010 by Congressman Sam Johnson of Texas. A retired Air Force colonel, Johnson flew the F-86 Sabre in the Korean War, the F-4 Phantom in the Vietnam War, and the F-100 Super Sabre as a member of the U.S.A.F. Thunderbirds.

An update from the 2010 ICAS Convention.

Here's a full account of my 11 October 2010 recurrent CAP Form 5 checkride with Capt Tim Kramer.  I demystify the CAP Form 5 process and give you some tips about how to put your best foot forward.  And, even if you don't plan on flying for CAP, you ost of the material here is useful for any checkride.

For more information about CAP or to find a unit near you, visit www.gocivilairpatrol.com.

Interview with the author of Stiff, Bonk, and now Packing For Mars - a riff on the trials, tribulations, and science behind the next step.  www.maryroach.net.

Acro Camp is crowdsourcing a part of the soundtrack.  This episode contains details and a snippet of the theme that underlies the piece.  Check out the show notes at www.airspeedonline.com for links to the guide tracks and other information.

Here's a three-camera treatment of a stall and spin sequence that I recently flew with Barry Sutton.  www.oaklandflightacademy.com

The cast of Acro Camp got together on TalkShoe the evening of 14 July to reunite, talk about the experience, and offer suggestions for the next time we do this. Acro Camp campers Paul Berliner, Michelle Kole, Lynda Meeks and Jim Rodriguez joined IP Don Weaver, production chief David Allen, and MyTransponder co-founder Rod Rakic for an hour or so in the virtual post-production studio.